March 18

"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?" — Psalms 89:48.

SOLLMN words indeed — but how slight and transient is the impression they produce on the mind! Let us now contemplate

MAN'S DEATH. Four things may be noticed with respect to death.

It is solemn in its nature. Death is a separation between the soul and body, the material and immaterial part of our being. It terminates the period of our probation here. It is a sleep from which the believer shall awake to immortal glory; the Divine promises are the pillows on which he rests; and the voice of his Redeemer shall arouse him from his sweet repose at the last day.

It is certain in its approach. This is implied in the passage before us; and it is evident from the appointment of God, and from the principles of which the human body is composed, which are perishing, and tend to decay. We live among the ruins of past generations, and tread upon the graves of the departed. Beneath our feet is the scattered dust of many a dissolved tabernacle, whose inhabitant has long since passed into eternity. We have the announcement of death in the Bible, and the sentence of death in ourselves.

It is universal in its extent. Death passes on all men: because the contaminating influence of sin has overspread the human family. It regards neither the bloom of youth, nor the wrinkles of age; the rags of the poor, nor the robes of the rich.

It is eternal in its consequences. Then our destinies will be irrevocably fixed; and death will conduct us either to the joys of the blessed in heaven, or to the torments of the lost in hell. Let us familiarize ourselves with the subject of death. This will slope our way to the tomb, and by dying daily, we shall at last die peacefully. It has been beautifully remarked, that meditation on death will give a grand and mellow tint to our habits of thinking; as a great ocean exposed to the rising sun borrows from its edge to the farthest bound of waters, a celestial glow of light.